SkullKast: Episode 100 - Flowers of Oblivion (DC Game)

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Episode 100: Flowers of Oblivion (2h 33m)
The SkullKast crew — Walter, Aazealh, and Griffith — play through all of the 1999/2000 Dreamcast game "Berserk: Chapter of the Flowers of Oblivion" (JP) / "Sword of the Berserk Guts Rage" (US). This is a pretty great game, but it's not very easy for everyone to just jump in and play. We wanted to talk in-depth about it and demonstrate how closely it adheres to the overall tone and feel of Berserk, so a video-podcast is the best way we could figure that out.

Grail Serpico!

That was a fun and interesting new take on the podcast. Heh, I didn't even realize it was released before the Conviction arc was even finished! I thought the only real preview it had for readers was Casca's return to lucidity (and that was a long ways off), but it really hinted at a lot of things to come, like Guts and Casca's reunion, Griffith's return, and his formation of an army of Apostles.

The game may not have aged well, but it still looks leagues better than the 2016-2017 anime. Shows how a little expressiveness in the character models and a lot of proper cinematography can go a long way.

That was great! I have never played this game and it was very fun watching you guys play it and listen to your thoughts about it.

I also have to agree that it's probably the best Berserk game. When I started reading the manga and since I have a PS4 I wanted to buy the "new" game, but it didn't look that good... Did you guys like/dislike the ps4 game?

Like people said, it's a very short game to begin with. But more than that, it's just very unique. It's very narratively-focused, heavy on cutscenes, and with a visual fidelity that was pretty impressive back when it was released (December 1999). It was also the first game to ever feature "Quick Time Events", as we mention during the podcast. It's really more of an interactive movie, but with actual good gameplay in it. A kind of hybrid that's unlikely to be made again.

I haven't even bought the new game... And I own a lot of Berserk-related stuff. I think that answers your question. The Dreamcast game remains uniquely relevant to Berserk today, and while the PS2 game was less meaningful, it was a well-executed, fun romp. The Musō one was just a cash-in, a Berserk skin applied to a gameplay that hasn't changed in 20 years.

"Strain your eyes at the darkness around us."

Hey! This is my first post. I've really enjoyed the podcast for a while now, but this episode was just out of this world. Thanks for all the effort you guys put into creating content and this community. It was really neat to see how many little connections a game that came out in 1999/2000 had to the current episodes—Casca's brief moment of awakening and her reference to a terrible dream in particular.

そうはいかぬ

Hey! This is my first post. I've really enjoyed the podcast for a while now, but this episode was just out of this world. Thanks for all the effort you guys put into creating content and this community.

I finally finished watching the podcast and I really enjoyed it. Back in the day a friend of mine had a Dreamcast and the game and he showed me the fight with Zodd, but other than that I didn’t have a good idea of what the game was about, so it was good to finally fix that.

On a different note, @Griffith, I must say that I’m loving your references lately; Trapper Keeper? one-hour photo? Man, we must be getting old.